Instacart hires Instagram manager to boost growth

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov 20 (Reuters) - Instacart said on Tuesday it hired Bangaly Kaba as vice president of growth from Facebook Inc's Instagram as the grocery delivery startup tries to make itself a household name.

Kaba, who had been with Facebook since 2014, said in a statement to Reuters that his team helped double Instagram's monthly users to more than 1 billion in about two years, and he saw the opportunity for similar growth at Instacart.

"While the two 'Instas' are inherently different products, I see the same growth potential in Instacart that I saw in Instagram’s early days," he said.

As part of Instacart's product organization, Kaba's unit will be focused on attracting customers and turning them into paying members of a grocery service that competes with Amazon.com Inc and several boutique players to bring online grocery orders direct to Americans' doorsteps.

Instacart's previous growth chief left in September.

The company raised $871 million from investors, including U.S. hedge fund Tiger Global Management, in recent weeks, valuing the startup at nearly $7.9 billion. (Reporting by Paresh Dave; Editing by Dan Grebler)